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After the Biden administration announced plans to bar sales of the company in the U.S., Kaspersky Lab will gradually wind down its U.S. operations – gifting six months of access to U.S. Users, including: Kaspersky Standard; Kaspersky Plus; Kaspersky Password Manager; Kaspersky Safe Kids; and Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection. Details here.
The convergence of Quantum Computing and blockchain-based credentials introduces a complex and expanded threat vector that demands careful consideration. Let’s explore the implications and the expanded threat landscape in detail.
In an update of our initial post (assessing the early onset of the Global IT outage) on Friday, 7/19/24 at 10 AM, included here is CISA’s formal response on Friday at1 p.m. EST (with updates from CISA through 7/21), an interesting quick take from Beijing on “why China was largely unaffected by Friday’s IT outage”,…
A comprehensive look at the situation in China paints a picture of a nation in decline. What follows is a situational assessment designed to inform strategic planning for business and government leaders interested in comprehending what may come next.
At approximately 3 AM EST, reports started crossing the transom of a global IT outage impacting a broad range of industries, causing airlines, banks, media broadcasters, and shipping lines to shut down operations. This post is a quick and dirty tick-tock of the incident and the response from Microsoft and Crowdstrike. For CISOs in mitigation…
At the June 2024 OODA Network Member Meeting – held on Friday, June 21, 2024 – the network discussed The Uptick in Global IT Supply Chain Breaches (Frequency and Specific Targeting), amongst other topics.
In its latest International Cyberspace and Digital Policy Strategy, the Department of State promoted a technological future that supports “digital solidarity,” a term that repackages the United States’ long held position of preserving an open Internet via the collaboration of similarly-minded nations to align their goals with one another. This position stands in marked contrast with the…
We are committed to a solutions-driven, abundance-based but not quite naively techno-utopian editorial voice here at OODA Loop. With that: the promise of USG Innovation is driven by research and development sometimes buried deep down in science and tech directorates in various governmental departments. Here are a few promising startup contract awards from the Department…
First principles thinking is a timeless methodology that continues to influence diverse fields by encouraging deep analysis and innovative solutions. While Aristotle and Descartes are pivotal figures in its philosophical underpinnings, modern figures like Elon Musk have popularized its application in business and technology, demonstrating its enduring relevance and utility. Trying times as a nation…
In 2017, NATO released a seminal report that concluded that climate change is the ultimate “threat multiplier,” leading to an increase in the number of regional and global disputes and violent conflicts caused by climate change-induced global scarcity. The Department of Defense (DoD) has also recognized that climate change will exacerbate existing security challenges and…
Project 2025 and Schedule F have been in our research queue relative to our prognostication in the OODA Almanac 2024: “Viewed through the lens of history, 2024 will be a landmark year punctuated by the complexities of a political process that will exacerbate the binary fractures of the American republic.” As we head into the…
With this post I reflect on some of the key lessons I have learned in the world of geopolitical intelligence analysis and reporting. My goal in sharing these lessons is to help you optimize your use of the reporting you see in the OODA daily pulse and the long form research and reporting done for…
There is nothing new about vulnerabilities when it comes to software, hardware, and firmware, so it is essential that companies demonstrate responsibility and accountability for their prompt disclosure and providing fixes.
In the run-up to this week’s 2024 NATO Summit in Washington D.C., NATO DIANA announced the innovation accelerator’s 2024 Innovation Challenges. Details here.
At OODA we have helped startups with disruptive capabilities succeed in several markets including defense tech, bio tech, quantum tech, space systems, bio tech and cybersecurity. We love doing what we can to accelerate great capabilities into market. This AI enabled clone can do much of that for you for free.
For much of last year, about 2,500 US service members from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit sailed aboard three ships throughout the Pacific, conducting training exercises in the waters off South Korea, the Philippines, India, and Indonesia. At the same time, onboard the ships, an experiment was unfolding: The Marines in the unit responsible for…
Intel Corp’s newly appointed CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, has deep financial ties to China’s tech sector, including investments in companies reportedly linked to the Chinese military. Tan has control over more than 40 Chinese companies and investment funds and holds minority stakes in over 600 others through firms he owns or manages — including at least…
When personal computers were first invented, only a small group of people who understood programming languages could use them. Today, anyone can look up the local weather, play their favorite song or even generate code with just a few keystrokes. This shift has fundamentally changed how humans interact with technology, making powerful computational tools accessible…
OpenAI will soon retire GPT-4, an AI model it launched over two years ago, from ChatGPT, according to a changelog posted on Thursday. Effective April 30, GPT-4 will be “fully replaced” by GPT-4o, the current default model in ChatGPT, OpenAI said. GPT-4 will remain available for use via OpenAI’s API. “In head‑to‑head evaluations, [GPT-4o] consistently…
With the rise of artificial intelligence, companies around the world are in a race for strong AI talent and working to upskill their workforces on the technology. This has been top of mind for organizational leaders, as 66% of them say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills, and 71% say they’d rather hire someone…
Israel has said that it will dismiss reservists who signed a letter condeming the continued war in Gaza. Israel’s government has said it will dismiss reservists who have sigend a letter calling for the end of the war in Gaza. Over 1,000 reservists have signed the letter and more people continue to add their name…
Ecuador is set to hold its presidential election runoff this Sunday. Ecuador’s presidential election runoff is scheduled to be held this Sunday. The two candidates are the incubment conservative president and a leftist lawyer. Voters are particularly concered about the continued violence caused by drug cartels as well as rising unemployment. Read more: https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-presidential-election-noboa-luisa-gonzalez-correa-f3914829d739a8db92ea95be1a083415
Zimbabwe has begun to compensate white farmers for land seizures. Zombabwe has made the first compensation payments to white farmers for land seizuers. The seizuers were conducted by former President Robert Mugabe as part of a plan to redistrubute land to poor black families. The compensation payments will only cover the cost of items destroyed…
Australia’s main opposition leader says he was targeted by a bomb plot. Australia’s main opposition leader has said that his home was targetted by a bomb plot. A suspect has been arrested and is facing charges of terrorism. Threats against Australian lawmakers have been on the rise in recent years. Australia is in the middle…
Mercury Corp. has been the victim of a data breach. The US based aircraft parts maker Mercury Corp. has been the victim of a data breach. The breach exposed the personal information of over 3,000 people. The company has said that their investigation has not revealed the exact nature of all the data that was…
Hackers have claimed to breach Wolters Kluwer. Hackers have claimed to breach the data archive of Wolters Kluwer. The company provides finicial services to several Fortune 500 firms. Researchers have said that the initial information released by the hackers indicates that they are likely in position of sensitive information. Read more: https://cybernews.com/security/wolters-kluwer-data-breach-financial-security/
Laboratory Services Cooperative has notified customers that their data was stolen. Laboratory Services Cooperative has notified customers that their personal data was stolen in a hack that took place in October. So far 1.6 million people have been identified as having their data stolen. The company said that patients of some Planned Parenthood clinics have…
US regulator leadership emails were hacked. The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has said that its leaderships’ emails were hacked. The Office said that the breach occured in February and that it had little impact on the security of its work. The Office has also said that information related to the condition…
Enterprise infrastructure is increasingly complex, meaning protecting it is, too. The attack surface is more expansive than ever, and many enterprises have a patchwork quilt of security tools, making it difficult to gain a cohesive understanding of their security posture. Add in AI — and all the threats it brings — and security teams are…
Google Cloud unveiled its seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), Ironwood, on Wednesday. This custom AI accelerator, the company claims, delivers more than 24 times the computing power of the world’s fastest supercomputer when deployed at scale. The new chip, announced at Google Cloud Next ’25, represents a significant pivot in Google’s decade-long AI chip development…
At NTT Upgrade 2025 in San Francisco, NTT Research has announced a UHD Video AI Inference chip for real-time 4k video processing. Its first application for the technology is for use in drones doing surveillance and detecting people flow. The company claims it will detect people using a 3×21 pixel pattern from a drone at…
Before 19 February 2025, most people wouldn’t have heard of the name Majorana. That day, Microsoft announced it had created the first chip powered by “topological qubits”. These qubits (quantum bits), the company said, were built around elusive particles dubbed “Majorana fermions”, named after the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana. Quantum computers rely on qubits that…
Spammers used OpenAI to generate messages that were unique to each recipient, allowing them to bypass spam-detection filters and blast unwanted messages to more than 80,000 websites in four months, researchers said Wednesday. The finding, documented in a post published by security firm SentinelOne’s SentinelLabs, underscores the double-edged sword wielded by large language models. The…
China’s inaugural training facility for heterogeneous humanoid robots will become fully operational in July. Known as the National and Local Co-built Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center, it occupies over 5,000 square meters in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang area. It aims to catalyze the sharing and utilization of large-scale data among robot developers. Global Times reports that over 100…
The global rush to AI technology will require almost as much energy by the end of this decade as Japan uses today, but only about half of the demand is likely to be met from renewable sources. Processing data, mainly for AI, will consume more electricity in the US alone by 2030 than manufacturing steel,…
Turkey has released dozens of people charged with participating in anti-government protests. 127 people have been released on bail by an Istanbul Court. The individuals had been charged with offenses related to their participation in anti-government protests. The vast majority of those released were students with upcoming exams. Read more: https://apnews.com/article/turkey-prisoners-students-protests-imamoglu-f4762e0faaa54ed3694fdc80b9a43edf
South Korea and Syria’s new government established diplomatic relations. South Korea has established diplomatic relations with the new government of Syria. South Korea has said that it is open to playing a role in the reconstruction of the country. South Korea has moved to establish relations with all world nations including those aligned with North…
Unions in Argentina have organized a general strike to protest government policies. The major unions in Argentina have organized a general strike to protest government policies. The union blame the government of President Milei for inflation and cuts to social programs. The strike takes places as negotiations between the government and the IMF are coming…
A prominent opposition leader in Tanzania has been arrested. A prominent opposition leader in Tanzania has been arrested on charges of treason after calling for electoral reform. The country is set to hold a general election in October of this year. Opposition parties have been critical of election laws which they say advantage the ruiling…
Morocco’s social security database was breached by hackers. Hackers have claimed to have breached Morocco’s social security databse. The warned that unless Morocoos ceased attacks against Algerian websites they would keep attacking government cyber infrastructure. The hackers have released some of the data they claimed to have stolen. The data showed salary information and other…
A ransomware attack against a major vendor has compromised banks in Singapore. A ransomware attack against the data vendor Toppan Next Tech has compromised the security of Singapore’s DBS Group and the country’s Bank of China branch. The breach has exposed the personal data of thousands of customers of both insitutions. Invesitgations into the breach…
Intelligence agencies have warned of increased Chinese spyware attacks against activists. Western intellgience agencies have warned that China is increasingly using apps to target rights advocates. The agencies said that those invovled with Taiwanese and Tibetan movements were the most at risk of being targetted. The agencies warned that organizations and individuals linked to advocates…
Toll payment services have increasingly been the victim of scams. Toll payment services have been the newest target of scam texts. There has been a 600% increase in the amount of reported text scams about late toll payments. The scammers have targeted individuals who live close to areas with toll authorities. Read more: https://cybernews.com/cybercrime/fake-toll-payment-texts-smishing-scams/
Agentic AI is the hottest AI topic because it takes AI assistance as we know it a step further, actually carrying out tasks for users. Adobe has millions of users who rely on its applications and services to carry out complex everyday business or creative processes. As a result, it is nearly a perfect candidate…
Google is releasing a new AI model designed to deliver strong performance with a focus on efficiency. The model, Gemini 2.5 Flash, will soon launch in Vertex AI, Google’s AI development platform. The company says it offers “dynamic and controllable” computing, allowing developers to adjust processing time based on the complexity of queries. “[You can…
Besides new Gemini features in Google Docs, Sheets, Meet, Chat and Vids, Cloud Next 2025 saw the announcement of Google Workspace Flows. As first teased at I/O last year, the company today announced Google Workspace Flows as a tool to “automate those multi-step processes using AI that can actually research, analyze, and generate content for…
Chinese scientists used a quantum computer to fine-tune a billion-parameter artificial intelligence (AI) model, marking what they claim is a global first and a step toward combining quantum computing with advanced AI tasks, the state-affiliated Global Times reported. The experiment was conducted on a superconducting quantum computer called Origin Wukong, which runs on a domestically…
At the headquarters of China’s pioneering robot maker Unitree, visitors are invited to push and kick the G1 — a 1.3-metre-tall, silver humanoid — to test its balance. The Hangzhou-based group is demonstrating the strength of its effort to transform the nascent industry to build humanlike machines. The robots are powered by open-source software that…
Zico Kolter has a knack for getting artificial intelligence to misbehave in interesting and important ways. His research group at Carnegie Mellon University has discovered numerous methods of tricking, goading, and confusing advanced AI models into being their worst selves. Kolter is a professor at CMU, a technical adviser to Gray Swan, a startup specializing…
The European Union said it would focus on building artificial-intelligence data and computing infrastructure and making it easier for companies to comply with regulation in a bid to catch up with the U.S. and China in the AI race. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it wanted to develop a network of so-called…
At 12.01am EST (04:01 GMT) on Wednesday, United States President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs will kick in, ramping up a global trade war that has roiled stock markets and set businesses on edge. Several prominent Trump supporters have raised concerns about his trade salvoes. Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for New…
Iran is approaching talks in Oman with the United States over its nuclear programme with deep suspicions regarding Washington’s motives, following the United States’ repeated threats of military action in the lead-up to the meeting. Behind the scenes, three Iranian officials told news agency Reuters that Trump’s warnings were seen as a tactic “to box…
Ukraine said its military had captured two Chinese citizens fighting in the Russian army and was seeking to understand whether their presence in eastern Ukraine represented an increase in Beijing’s support for Moscow’s war. China has professed itself neutral but supported Russia economically while stopping short of providing military equipment or troops. U.S. officials have…
With the clock ticking for additional United States tariffs to be placed on goods from China, President Donald Trump has said he is waiting for a call from Beijing to defuse a growing trade war. Trump has threatened to impose additional 50-percent tariffs on Chinese goods if China does not revoke the retaliatory levies it…
The US Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) shared information on a recently discovered email system breach that has been described as a “major incident”. The initial investigation revealed that a “limited number” of email accounts were affected and there was no evidence of impact on the financial sector. However, an…
Tech giant Google has rolled out an experimental artificial intelligence model, called Sec-Gemini v1, designed to support incident response and threat analysis workflows coming from its Mandiant threat-intel unit. “This combination of Google’s Gemini large language model capabilities with near real-time security data and tooling allows it to achieve superior performance on key cybersecurity workflows,…
The hottest technology today and the emerging most-promising technology are joining forces. Combining AI and quantum computing in new solutions will advance the efficiency and effectiveness of new applications of these powerful technologies. UNESCO declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, and both Google and Microsoft followed by demonstrating breakthroughs in quantum…
If you read the news about AI, you may feel bombarded with conflicting messages: AI is booming. AI is a bubble. AI’s current techniques and architectures will keep producing breakthroughs. AI is on an unsustainable path and needs radical new ideas. AI is going to take your job. AI is mostly good for turning your…
China is moving fast to dominate biotechnology, and the U.S. risks falling behind permanently unless it takes action over the next three years, a congressional commission said. Congress should invest at least $15 billion to support biotech research over the next five years and take other steps to bolster manufacturing in the U.S., while barring…
At a time when reducing imports and building national capacity is become ever more important, Ukraine has achieved what seemed impossible: producing drones using entirely locally made components. This gives them an unrivalled ability to develop and mass produce drones to their exact requirements. More surprising is the cost. Rather than adding a premium, by…
IBM is releasing the latest version of its mainframe hardware that includes new updates meant to accelerate AI adoption. The hardware and consulting company on Monday announced IBM z17, the latest version of its mainframe computer hardware. This fully encrypted mainframe is powered by an IBM Telum II processor and is designed for more than…
For more than 100 years, writers, artists and filmmakers have sketched out their visions of the household robot, a supposedly inevitable culmination of human technological advancement. One day, these multitasking machines will, we’re told, perform tedious tasks efficiently and without complaint, respond courteously to requests and remain unobtrusively compliant and meek. In The Automatic Maid-Of-All-Work…
Since ChatGPT came on the scene in November 2022, employees have been using the AI chatbot and other variations from Google, Microsoft, Apple, and others, to take notes, write emails, and translate meetings. But could the tools you’re using to help your work actually take your job instead? Goldman Sachs estimated in a 2023 report…
The U.S. and Ukraine plan to discuss the latest U.S. proposal for access to the country’s rare minerals this week. Ukraine will send negotiations to the U.S. to discuss next steps for the deal. President Trump has made his continuous support for Ukraine contingent on the mineral deal, which will give the U.S. preferential access…
The world’s newest country, South Sudan, is on the verge of being thrown into a civil war. A standoff between President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar, has grown more tense after Kiir’s troops detained Machar last week. There is fear that a fresh round of ethnic killing will break out, bringing a repeat…
President Trump has announced that the U.S. began to negotiate with Iran over the country’s nuclear program this week. Trump told reports Monday that the U.S. had a big upcoming meeting with Iran in which they would discuss the issue, additionally warning that Iran would be in “great danger” if the diplomatic efforts failed. The…
European Union officials are preparing to vet and vote on a list of retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. this week. These officials are looking at a two-part approach to the recent tariffs, both offering to cut tariffs on American-made products and preparing to retaliate with tariffs of their own. The EU is considering employing a…
Cybersecurity agencies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. have published a joint advisory about the fast flux technique and its associated risks. The technique is being used by hackers to obscure command-and-control (C2) channels. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were involved…
PoisonSeed, a new phishing campaign, has been targeting customer relationship management (CRM) and bulk email providers. The campaign features phishing messages designed to target owners of cryptocurrency. The victim is given a crypto seed phrase which allows a threat actor to steal their assets. CRM and bulk email providers like Mailchimp, Hubspot, and Mailgun are…
A new AI-driven hacking tool “Xanthorox AI” is raising alarm from researchers. The tool allows attackers to develop and launch a variety of cyberattacks including phishing campaigns, exploiting vulnerabilities, or enacting ransomware attacks. The cyberattack platform allows for self-directed, autonomous AI-driven attacks. It was first spotted in March, and cyber defenders fear that it may…
21 nations have signed a voluntary accord governing the use of commercial hacking tools, or spyware. The agreement had been in the works for over a year, and was finally signed in Paris last week. The accord is the Pall Mall Process, or Code of Practices for States, and is made up of four pillars…
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek has introduced a novel approach to improving the reasoning capabilities of large language models (LLMs), as the public awaits the release of the company’s next-generation model. In collaboration with researchers from Tsinghua University, DeepSeek developed a technique that combines methods referred to as generative reward modelling (GRM) and self-principled…
Microsoft owns lots of Nvidia graphics processing units, but it isn’t using them to develop state-of-the-art artificial intelligence models. There are good reasons for that position, Mustafa Suleyman, the company’s CEO of AI, told CNBC’s Steve Kovach in an interview on Friday. Waiting to build models that are “three or six months behind” offers several…
Victory at sea will require large fleets of autonomous subsea, surface, and air vehicles capable of bringing advanced awareness and overwhelming adversaries with mass maritime effects. With the Dive-LD and Dive-XL, Copperhead enables a comprehensive, intelligent maritime capability that allows operators to quickly respond to threats in the undersea battlespace, at a fraction of the…
While there are still differing perspectives on how long it will be until certain types of quantum computing hit commercial viability, experts from big tech companies like Google and IBM as well as smaller organizations like D-Wave Quantum and TreQ generally agree on quantum’s most mature, promising industry applications, which range from medical insights to…
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